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January 04, 2010
10 Years Gone
The Bills won in the snow today to bring a merciful and long-overdue end to their hellish 2009 campaign. I'll ignore the fact that Indy was sitting their starters - it was just nice to see the team win in the elements. Me and Dom were reminiscing earlier this afternoon about when January games used to mean something. Been too long. But today, Fitz threw strikes, TO and Lee caught pretty touchdowns, and Freddy "Beast Who?" Jackson ran for 212 yards and became the first player in NFL history to top the thousand yard mark in both yards rushing and kickoff returns. Fuck yeah; way to go out on a high note.
But of course our season was done a long time ago. The ol' Bills dipped below .500 in Week 3 - and that, dear readers, was that. The bubbles stopped coming up and the dudes never resurfaced. Really, it was all underwater once October hit. My personal rock-bottom moment was sitting in the stands at the Ralph for the Cleveland game. On a beautiful fall day, just absolutely perfect for football, my Buffalo goddamn Bills lost by the ignominious score of 6-3. Cleveland's starting quarterback went 2 of 17 for 23 yards and still beat us. I was sitting in the Rockpile with a couple of my oldest friends from Black Rock, and they donned their paper bags about five minutes into the second quarter. It was a long, long Sunday night drive back to Brooklyn. Like Nick Mendola says, it's been a rat salad of a year.
Now, at season's end, the Bills have officially finished in last place in the AFC East. Again. 10 years with no playoff appearances, not since I was a freshman in college. So I could have put this up a hell of a long time ago, but it didn't feel right somehow. It's not like I enjoy the fact that it's been over 3,000 days - 3,000 DAYS! - since the Bills have made the playoffs. But I have no choice.
So like we always do about this time:
Come on, Buddy Nix. With an accent that country, you gotta be good. I'd pay five bucks to hear Nix say "varmint" out loud - and I'd pay even more to see the Bills reborn. Start by hiring Cowher... but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's next year. For now: Go Sabres!
Posted by caps at January 4, 2010 12:15 AM